Pic(k) of the week 37: Faces of the Fish Market

End of 2009, I started making environmental portraits of the men working at the Dubai Fish Market. Most people working there are from either the Subcontinent (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) or Iran. 

2011 Pic(k) of the week 37: Faces of the Fish Market
A few weeks later, I returned with their promised free prints. Distributing these is quite an experience. One finds himself immediately surrounded with tens of men trying to see if their picture is among the ones. The gratitude they express and the look on their faces, once the photo is handed over, makes the process very satisfying.

It didn't take long before, I realized this would make a great personal photography project. Faces of the Fish Market was born!

I've been going back multiple times and the latest images from last week, can be found here. Even though the project is purely black & white, the printed images I give to the guys, are normally in color since this seems to be what they prefer.

While a lot of these people still have their families (including wife/kids) in their respective home countries, I hope that some of these prints will end up in Indian and Pakistani living spaces...

Image details:
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 50mm 1.4G
ISO1600, f6.3, 50mm, 1/25s
Raw development in LR3
Nik ColorEfex pro for optimal contrast
Nik SilverEfex 2 for Black and White development

A 4 min online slideshow with some of the best "Faces of the Fish Market" images can be found here.

Don't just take pictures, make pictures!

BJORN
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